Algerian troops on Monday killed a jihadist east of the capital, the defence ministry said, bringing to 12 the number of gunmen killed by security forces in a week.

The jihadist was killed during a military operation in Tadmait 80 kilometres (50 miles) outside Algiers, it said, two days after three others were killed in the same area.

The army killed a jihadist in El Oued further south near the Tunisian border on Saturday, it said, after killing six more in the desert area in a week.

Algerian police had also killed a jihadist wearing an explosives belt in the Tizi Ouzou area east of the capital on Wednesday, security sources said.

A total of "157 terrorists, including 10 commanders" were killed or arrested in military operations last year, according to the defence ministry.

A brutal civil war in the 1990s between the government and Islamists killed 200,000 people.

Despite adopting a peace and reconciliation charter in 2005 aimed at turning the page on the conflict, armed groups remain active in the centre and east of Algeria.

12 Algerian soldiers killed in helicopter crash
Algiers March 27, 2016 - Twelve Algerian soldiers were killed Sunday in a helicopter crash caused by technical failure in the south of the country, the defence ministry said. The Mi-171 helicopter crashed during a reconnaissance mission near Reggane, in the southwestern province of Adrar, the APS press agency quoted the ministry as saying. The vice-minister of defence and army chief of staff Ahmed Gaid Salah "immediately ordered that an enquiry be established to determine the causes of the accident," the statement said. In February 2014, an army plane crashed in east Algeria, killing 77 people. In October the same year, a military plane crashed in the south of the country during a training exercise, killing the two men on board. And in December 2012, two military planes collided mid-flight during a training exercise in Tlemcen, in the far west of the country, killing both pilots.